Hi all, my mates stilo has fail its MOT, short of it is it needs front discs and pads, and 2 new tyres...also failed on

o/s front suspension has excessive play in a lower suspensaion ball joint (2.5.b.1a)

How do i remidy this? basically hes a bit strapped for cash, and ive offered to fix what i can for him. so whats the crack with the above?

Thanks all

Basically throw money at it

2 New Tyres plus possible tracking £70-100

New Brake disks and Pads £80

New o/s wishbone as the ball joint is part of the wishbone £45


Say £225 for parts

John

cool beans as i thought...yeh i can do the wishbone (can get for £40) and mintex discs and pads (can get for £60) and he can sort the tyres.....I sould really have done a search....the answers are all on here....thanks anyways for the confirmation!

Mine failed last year on the same ball joint, it looked simple to fit but fiddley.

actually i personally thought the lower wishbone replacement was one of the easier jobs to complete on the stilo, just get yourself a two prong splitter about £5 and a 2lb hammer was enough to get the thing out.
took me a total of 30mins to complete.
its a lot easier to replace them than any of the brake pads tbh.

thats good to know, because thats what im going to attack it with

roy lovelock said:

actually i personally thought the lower wishbone replacement was one of the easier jobs to complete on the stilo, just get yourself a two prong splitter about £5 and a 2lb hammer was enough to get the thing out.
took me a total of 30mins to complete.
its a lot easier to replace them than any of the brake pads tbh.

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Hi, just ordered myself a new Lower Wishbone for an MOT this weekend and saw your post! Is it just a case of jacking up, undoing the nuts and removing or are there usually issues with seized bolts or bushes etc? Am I correct in thinking that the new part comes with the new bushings and therefore it is just the end bolts/nuts that need undoing, + of course needing a ball joint splitter which I did see in my garage about 6yrs ago ).

Any little tips very much appreciated as I will need to get it done on Friday and have no info on the job. Maybe I best buy a Haynes Manual for it. Are they useful do you think? Or a necessity! Cheers, Hound.

Haynes isn't necessary (it also doesn't exist for a Stilo )
I experianced no seized bolts, and new wishbone comes with new bushes and ball joint pre-installed

its essentially as follows:

- jack up
- remove wheel
(DEFIANTLY easier to get the wishbone off if you remove the brake calliper and disk at this point, but not necessary)
- loosen all three bolts a bit (shouldn't be seized)
- take out the bolt at the wishbone fixing point nearest the extremity of the car
- get your ball joint splitter in there and pry the wishbone from the suspension strut
- once its clear of the strut, remove the two bolts at the back of the wishbone
- pull it away from you (old wishbone out)
- put new one in align and loosely put in the two bolts at the back of the wishbone
- put the ball joint into the strut
- tighten up all three bolts
- reassemble, all done

Only one extra point, when you reassemble I believe you're supposed to torque up the bolts with the wheels on the ground bearing the weight of the car.

hmm, thanks, i didnt know this.....

reasoning behind it??

How are you sposed to get under there on the schumi. Its way too low to get near the wishbone on the ground surely?

maybe its supposed to be done on ramps? its also too low to get under a stock 1.8 on the ground....

Meh im a skinny runt lol. I could drop the sump on my 1.6 without jacking it up.

oh LOL never seen a 1.6 in the flesh....but i can barley get my head under my 1.8....let alone my bulging chest

mzhussein said:

maybe its supposed to be done on ramps? its also too low to get under a stock 1.8 on the ground....

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Yes, would have to be on ramps for the final torque up...

mzhussein said:

its essentially as follows:

- jack up
- remove wheel
(DEFIANTLY easier to get the wishbone off if you remove the brake calliper and disk at this point, but not necessary)
- loosen all three bolts a bit (shouldn't be seized)
- take out the bolt at the wishbone fixing point nearest the extremity of the car
- get your ball joint splitter in there and pry the wishbone from the suspension strut
- once its clear of the strut, remove the two bolts at the back of the wishbone
- pull it away from you (old wishbone out)
- put new one in align and loosely put in the two bolts at the back of the wishbone
- put the ball joint into the strut
- tighten up all three bolts
- reassemble, all done

Click to expand...

Yellow Peril said:

Only one extra point, when you reassemble I believe you're supposed to torque up the bolts with the wheels on the ground bearing the weight of the car.

Click to expand...

You also need to get the tracking checked and, if neccessary, adjusted after replacing any suspension parts.

There was also a Fiat service bulletin issued about the lower wishbones in response to premature tyre wear.
-

mzhussein said:

hmm, thanks, i didnt know this.....

reasoning behind it??

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Suspension bushes should always be tightened with the weight of the car on the suspension, otherwise the bushes would be under permanent tension resulting in premature failure.

If you have axle stands with a "V" shaped top, you could put them under the hub part of the brake discs. This would simulate the weight of car being on the ground while you tighten the bushes. To get the car in the correct position, you would need to put stands under both front discs.

didn't think of that....now i got to loosen and re-tighten my mates lol

It doesn't matter so much about the ball joint that connects to the hub carrier or the rear wishbone bush that has a vertically mounted center. The front bush (or any bush with a horizontal center mounting) is the one that could be under permanent tension if tightened while the suspension is hanging.

Several people in old threads have reported replacing Stilo rear axle bushes that have gone again after a few thousand miles. I suspect the reason could be that they were tightened while the axle was hanging rather than while the weight of the car was on it's suspension.

Yellow Peril said:

Only one extra point, when you reassemble I believe you're supposed to torque up the bolts with the wheels on the ground bearing the weight of the car.

Click to expand...

Any idea of how tight this should be - looking forward to some fun on Saturday